STEVE JOBS: CLARITY OF VISION




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“After character, the ability to create, articulate, evangelize, and execute on your vision is what will make or break you as a leader.”

- Mike Myatt

Clarity is often a term associated with Diamonds and the clarity chart describes the presence, or absence, of flaws within the diamond , any flow has the potential to disrupt its passthrough light, thereby losing the reflected light and losing its clarity.

One of the qualities of an exceptional great leader is not only to have a vision, but to have it with a degree of clarity that is unparalleled and not umbigous. Stve Jobs was such leader known for his highest degree of clarity in percieved vision. Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs: The exclusive biography"  describes Jobs as as an obssessively detail-oriented man who got obessesed with the details of " the design of the case for the Apple II, the shape of the windows on the Mac’s GUI, the colour of iMac blue in its first ad campaign, the machine having a CD slot not a tray, and the lighting at his launch keynotes"

Isaacson also describes how the original iPhone was revised at the last minute, delaying its shipping date, because Jobs decided he was not 100 per cent happy with the design – telling his design chief Jony Ive: “I didn’t sleep last night because I realised that I just don’t love it.” Jobs then asked the iPhone team to work nights and weekends to accommodate the last-minute redesign.

Des Walsh in his vision clarity exercise defines it “a state of being free from doubt or confusion, able to see without darkness or obscurity”  and he offers the following three stages as a way to bring these principles into a practical business application, core questions, tracking questions, and review questions.

Core Questions

• what was the vision I had when I started this business, this project?

• what is the vision I would have if /when I dare to be great

• where do I want my business to be in 5 years time?

Tracking Questions

• What is the success or otherwise of my business now? (Use some measurements

such as annual turnover, percentage growth in sales, profitability)

• How did I/we get here?

• Am I closer to realizing my dream? Further away?

• What have I done to move towards the vision?

• What have I done/not done to slow the progress or fall away?

• How keen or otherwise am I to have a clear, compelling vision of the future?

• What can I say, positive or negative, about “the vision thing” from my point of

view? (be really honest with yourself here – a lot of people lose sight of their vision:

the underlying, game-changing question is, do you still have and love that vision or

is it time for a new one?)

Review Questions

· Is my vision crystal clear?

· Do I see myself clearly moving towards my vision, standing still or slipping back?

· Am I really clear about the issues and challenges I'm addressing or need to

   address?

· Do I have support or obstruction from my own thoughts and feelings?

· Do I have support or obstruction from the external environment?